[KeithO]

I am about to go out and start removing parts off my car in anticipation of a rear swap between Christmas and New Years. I am going to do a little at a time due to time constraints. This morning I will remove the driveshaft, rear swaybar and possibly the shocks only.

First, the car is currently on 4 jackstands with the stands supporting the car on the frame rails as shown here:
http://www.installuniversity.com/install_u...rsity/index.htm

The front/rear weight bias paired with the jackstand locations always made me a little nervous on this car (actually all of my f-bodies). Has anyone done a rear end swap and if so, was there any risk or tendency for the car to rotate forward once all of the weight is removed from the rear? (Due to an accident that happened as a teenager to a friend of mind with jacks/jack stands - I was there - I am hyper-sensitive about getting under cars anyway. In fact, I didn't do anything with cars from the mid-1980's until 2000 after that.) Is there any risk here or am I being paraniod?

Second, I plan on removing things in the following order. This is only an educated guess.
Driveshaft
Sway bar
Shocks
Brake pieces/lines
Any residual wiring that might be there (ABS removed)
Torque arm
Panhard bar
Lower control arms

My logic with leaving the LCAs until last is that I plan to have 2 jackstands under the axle tubes and as I remove pieces, the LCA's will keep the rear centered and allow the rear to rotate in controlled manner into the jack stand cradles.

Is this the correct order to remove stuff? Is "installation the reverse of removal"? Any hints on making this an easier job?

Thanks

[GlennCMC70]

i just did this 2 times over the last month. i have in the past used only 2 jackstands to get just the rear up in the air.
the last swap was just 2 weeks ago was on the CMC car and i used 4 stands. once the weight of the diff as off the car, it wanted to tip over on the front stands. i had the front stands @ the forward end of the subframe connectors. thats not far enough. place the stands on the farthest forward part of the cars subframe. also, if you only have 4 jackstands, get more! place a 5th one under the K member in case it does tip forward.

do the brake lines first, then the wires (wires on a CMC car's diff??). remove the sway bar. driveshaft next. place a floor jack under the center of the diff. you will need to do this to get the diff to rotate in order to get the bind out of the torque arm and diff to get the torque arm off. once the T/A is off, the diff will want to rotate towards the rear. thats why you have the floor jack under it. now remove the LCA's. and place jack stands under each side to keep it balanced as you remove the shocks. lower the diff w/ the floor jack.